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From the Pastor: HURRICANE IAN RECOVERY UPDATE This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24 What a beautiful day it turned out to be on Sunday, yet another day that Lord has made. We here at Trinity Lutheran Church of Southwest Florida, despite our circumstances, grabbed the opportunity to rejoice and be glad in it! Once again, we hauled out the chancel furnishings, the altar, back altar, and pulpit, and brought out about 80 chairs. We hooked up our new portable sound system, with some mixed results…it appears that there’s a learning curve that we need to round to optimize its usage. I did have a microphone to be better heard by the congregation. We also brought out our Clavinova keyboard as electric power has been restored, and by about 9:15am we were ready for worship. There was one problem though. We quickly discovered that we didn’t have near enough chairs. 100 or more worshipers gathered in the presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to receive the forgiveness that He won for us in the cross and empty tomb, along with the assurance of our eternal life as the gift of God’s grace in Christ. We did run into another problem though, as the sound system has only one tower of speakers. Those who we’re upwind of it and a longer distance from it had a hard time hearing. We are working on getting a second speaker or tower of speakers for this next Sunday. The message for the day was “A World of Hurt” based on the circumstances in Ruth 1, 2 Timothy 2, and Luke 17. Here we find Naomi and her daughter in law Ruth in world of hurt, along with the Apostle Paul (He’s about to be martyred…beheaded) and 10 lepers who cried out to Jesus for pity. In Psalm 46 we were assured that, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.” (1-3) The sea and sky have most certainly roared and foamed recently. God is a God of goodness and perfect love. That never ever changes and will never fail us. Even in the toughest of circumstances, like we know find ourselves we can confidently declare that “God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good!” He is our VERY present help in trouble, present with us, for us, and in us. We know…WE KNOW…that in this storm God has a plan to prosper us here at TLC in our worship, our fellowship, our witness to the community around us, and our love for our neighbor. I have no doubt that a couple of years from now, maybe sooner, we’ll look back and say “WOW…we didn’t see that coming! Look at the amazing thing that God has done for us.” Now it’s time to get busy and begin the process of restoring our church and office space back into a usable condition. It will take weeks, probably months. I know that insurance isn’t going to cover all the costs. We’re applying to FEMA to fill in the gaps. We’ve also been promised some financial assistance through the Lutheran Emergency Response Teams (LERT) who are now in the area helping churches, church workers, and church members who have been hit the hardest. I believe it was Saturday that I sent out an email about the “TLC Hurricane Relief Fund”. At this point we can only receive donations by checks in the mail. Soon…like today…we’re working on putting together a Go Fund Me page that electronic donations can be made through. Dr. John Behnke told me yesterday that this was a very effective way for his church in Milwaukee, Historic Trinity, to raise funds after a devastating fire. We will also be working on fundraising through Facebook as we already have a presence there. Once these up and going I will let you know, and I encourage you to pass the word to friends, family, and members of other churches that you have been or are still associated with. Put it up on your Facebook page if you’ve got one. God is going to get us through this. Our part is to do those things that we’re able to do and look to him to do those things that we can’t. Please continue to pray for TLC, our recovery, and especially our mission and ministry. May the cross be lifted high in all that we do so that it can be seen clearly in our community. My God be glorified, and His name hallowed in everything that we do. “The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matthew 9:37-38) This next Sunday we will once again be outdoors, and I pray we’ll have at least one more speaker. The worship service will be at 9:30am for the next several weeks, and this week the Lord’s Supper will be included in the liturgy. We’ll have a time of fellowship after worship and the Sunday Bible study will be added back into our schedule. Our awesome God is already doing great things for us, and I am totally confident that He’s not about to change! The Lord be with you all, Pastor Brian